Think about everything your home does for you without you even noticing. It keeps the rain out. It's where you charge your phone, cook dinner, help a sibling with homework, and lock the door at night.
If you've ever sat through a long power cut, you know how quickly a normal evening falls apart when the lights go out.
Now imagine that's every night. For more than 2.8 billion people, home means some form of inadequate housing. And around 750 million people still live without electricity at all.
That's why this year's International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, marked today, Oct. 17, is all about one idea: Safe Homes for All.
Here's what you need to know, how it connects to what Global Citizens have been taking action on all year, and what you can do right now.
What is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty?
It started on Oct. 17, 1987, when more than 100,000 people gathered at the Trocadéro in Paris to honor people affected by extreme poverty, violence, and hunger. In 1992, the UN General Assembly made it official through resolution 47/196.
What makes this day different is who shapes it. Each year's theme is chosen in consultation with people who have lived experience of poverty. They know best what needs to change, so their voices lead.
Why is this year's focus on homes?
The day now runs under a three-year theme, United for Peace and Human Rights, with 2026 zooming in on housing as the foundation of a life with dignity.
According to UN-Habitat, more than 1.1 billion people live in slums or informal settlements, and more than 120 million people moved into or were born into these communities over the past decade alone.
These neighborhoods often lack reliable water, sanitation, waste collection, and public transport, and families can live with the constant risk of eviction. They're also often among the most exposed to floods and extreme heat.
Each of these makes it harder to get ahead. Unsafe water affects health. No electricity means no studying after dark. The risk of losing your home makes it hard to plan, save, or invest in the future.
The good news? UN-Habitat calls upgrading informal settlements one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty, improve health, and build climate resilience, all at once.
Where does the world stand on extreme poverty?
The World Bank now defines extreme poverty as living on less than $3 a day. By that measure, close to 10% of the world's population was estimated to be living in extreme poverty in 2025.
That number is too high. But it isn't fixed. Since the Global Citizen movement began, more than $50 billion in commitments announced on our platforms has been distributed, impacting more than 1.3 billion lives. Action works.
How does this connect to what Global Citizens are working on?
A safe home is more than a roof. It's light to study by, power to keep medicine cold, and energy that doesn't drain a family's budget. That's exactly what Global Citizens have been taking action on this year.
Powering homes. One of the three goals of the 2026 Global Citizen Festival campaign was to power 2.5 million homes and communities across the Indo-Pacific with clean, reliable energy. Across the campaign, Global Citizens took 3.5 million actions, helping secure more than $1 billion in commitments set to impact 7.5 million people and help 2 million children get to and stay in school.
That included a pledge from People of the Sun and Indigenized Energy to upgrade 50,000 Indigenous homes across North America with rooftop solar, batteries, and energy-efficiency improvements.
What's next: Global Citizen NOW: Perth. Starting tomorrow, leaders gather at Global Citizen NOW: Perth from Oct. 18–20 in Western Australia. It's where the agenda for action on clean energy in the Indo-Pacific is set, aligning leaders from government, business, philanthropy, and First Nations communities. The summit will seek commitments to expand reliable, affordable electricity to as many as 4 million homes and add at least 2.5 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity.
Keeping kids learning when home is lost. Conflict, extreme weather, and rising costs are forcing millions of families from their homes and disrupting education. On Nov. 5, donors meet in Geneva for the Education Cannot Wait replenishment conference, where they'll be asked for $600 million to reach 10 million more children in crisis.
How can you take action?
Oct. 17 is one day. The work to make sure everyone has a safe home runs all year. Here's how to be part of it:
- Download the Global Citizen app. It's the fastest way to take action, from signing petitions to contacting leaders, in just a few minutes a day. Get it here.
- Take action for clean energy ahead of GC NOW: Perth. Call on leaders to make bold commitments to power homes across the Indo-Pacific. Take action now.
- Stand up for children whose education has been disrupted by conflict and crisis. Urge governments to fund Education Cannot Wait, the global fund for education in emergencies, ahead of its replenishment conference in Geneva on Nov. 5. Take action.
- Watch the UN commemoration. Hear directly from people with lived experience of poverty in the replay of Friday's event on UN Web TV.
- Donate to the movement. Your donation supports Global Citizen's campaigns to end extreme poverty, from powering homes to keeping children in school. Donate now.
- Share what home means to you. Post this article and tell your friends why a safe home matters. The more of us taking action, the louder the call.
Ending extreme poverty starts at home. Let's make sure everyone has one worth coming back to.